Exam 2 QUESTION ONE: Chapter 12 discusses the issue of police discretion and community relations. There are 8 main issues raised by the authors. Describe the highlights of the issues. Police discretion is defined as an authority given to police officers to make judgment calls, as to whether or not they will follow policing statues, or allow someone to leave with a warning. According to the text, discretion occurs at every level of decision making within the criminal justice process, and how it is used can affect other components within the system. Police use their discretion to determine what laws should or should not be enforced. Discretion can be used in most instances; however there are some incidences that a police officer cannot ignore, …show more content…
Community policing stresses the entire cooperation between members of the police force and the community. It necessitates that everyone in the police force, including both civilian officers and sworn personnel, understands that the focus is on resolving community problems, and in doing so, may challenge the everyday policing norms. The Officers are tasked with the responsibility to bring together both governmental and private resources in order to achieve positive results. They are often encouraged to spend a significant amount of time and energy raising and preserving individual interactions with residents, businesses, schools, and community organizations. Community policing allows officers to be actively involved on the streets alongside the community. Their focus is not only to solve crimes but to interact with the people in their neighborhood, establish a rapport with them. This initiative has gained popularity within recent years as the police and leaders of the community pursue more significant ways to promote public safety and to enrich the quality of life of their community members. The police and the citizens often come in contact with each other for a multitude of reasons other than criminal purposes. Police officers often engage in community service by providing an abundance of information for those in need, and they offer educational services at schools and outreach
I think police discretion is very common. Police officers exercise the choice of whether to question someone, arrest a suspect as well as several other duties and each of these decisions are made without the presence of supervision so perhaps this is the reason it exists. Discretion may be decreased but I don’t think it can be eliminated, even with supervision police officers together hold the authority to make discretionary decisions even if the public disagrees with their tactics. I don’t necessarily think police discretion should not be eliminated because, majority of the decisions that are made by them are made in the best interest of the public or victim.
“community policing is a philosophy of full service personalized policing, where the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis, from a decentralized place, working in a proactive partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems.”
In law enforcement, discretion is left up to each police officer to make responsible and reasonable decisions on situations while in the field. A police officer will have no choice but to use discretion in certain situations and make decisions on what type of force or punishment is necessary for the situations. Many people in the society always believe that police officers can make any decision they wish to at any time while working. This is very wrong because there are situations whereby a police officer or even the chief of police has no other choice, but to follow the law in making decisions. The role of the police administrator is double challenging because, he/she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members ...
Police discretion is structured and controlled by the kind of situation that the police must deal with (Wilson, 1968). Wilson (1968) delineates four different situations. Police-invoked law enforcement, citizen-invoked law enforcement, police-invoked order maintenance, and citizen-invoked order maintenance.
Officers are able to use discretion in many situations that their morals would guide them in. They have the right to pull a person over with probable cause or a violation and they can choose whether to give them a ticket, a warning, or nothing, depending on the situation.
Police discretion. Police discretion is defined as the decision-making power afforded to Police Officers that allows them to decide if they want to pursue police procedure or simply let someone off with a warning. Police discretion can be also defined as the individual’s ability to make a decision based on the principle of courses in the actions. Police officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific situation alone, or without immediate supervision. In other words, police discretion is the choice the officer has on how he or she enforces the law. Discretion in law enforcement includes whom to arrest, whom to investigate, whom to talk to, and whom to interview (Pollock, 2014). Use of discretion
This concept has been around for decades and is believed to be an important aspect of law enforcement and the foundation of communicating with the people a law enforcement agency serves. There is such a strong belief in community policing in 2004 the Department of Justice (DOJ) dedicated an entire division to it. The DOJ calls this division the Community Oriented Policing Service also known as COPS. The Department of Justice states “Community policing begins with a commitment to building trust and mutual respect between police and communities. It is critical to public safety, ensuring that all stakeholders work together to address our nation's crime challenges. When police and communities collaborate, they more effectively address underlying issues, change negative behavioral patterns, and allocate
Discretion is defined as the authority to make a decision between two or more choices (Pollock, 2010). More specifically, it is defined as “the capacity to identify and to document criminal and noncriminal events” (Boivin & Cordeau, 2011). Every police officer has a great deal of discretion concerning when to use their authority, power, persuasion, or force. Depending on how an officer sees their duty to society will determine an officer’s discretion. Discretion leads to selective enforcement practices and may result in discrimination against certain groups of people or select individuals (Young, 2011). Most police officer discretion is exercised in situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).
Community policing is a strategy used by various departments in order to create and maintain a relationship between the law enforcement agency and the community being patrolled. Community policing is composed of three critical components, community partnerships, organizational transformation, and problem solving (Gardiner, 154, 2016). Community partnerships are pivotal in community policing since they increase public trust and create am improved relationship in law enforcement agencies better serving the community (Gardiner, 87, 2016). These partnerships not only offer public input but also encourage the public to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in order to minimize crime within the community (Gardiner, 88, 2016). Unlike, the traditional strategies of policing, community orientated policing has been adopted by two-thirds of agencies in order to improve public safety and control crime. (Gardiner, 148, 2016).
Community based policing can best be defined as, 'a collaborative effort between the police and the community that identifies problems of crime and disorder and involves all elements of the community in the search for solutions to these problems' (Sykes). Community based policing is the idea that the role of the police is not that of catching 'bad guys,' but more that of serving the public. In order for community based policing to have an effect, the presence of crime isn?t needed, in fact it?s often more effective without the involvement of crime, ?Modern police departments are frequently called upon to help citizens resolve a vast array of personal problems--many of which involve no law-breaking activity? (Schmalleger). The role of the police officer in community based policing, is to have an active part in the community. This can be something as simple as stopping in at a school just to talk to the kids, or...
Community oriented policing has been around for over 30 years, and promotes and supports organizational strategies to address the causes, and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problem solving tactics. The way community policing works is it requires the police and citizens to work together to increase safety for the public. Each community policing program is different depending on the needs of the community. There have been five consistent key elements of an effective community oriented policing program: Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, making an institutional commitment to community policing that is internalized throughout the command structure, emphasizing geographically decentralized models of policing that stress services tailored to the needs of individual communities rather than a one-size-fits-all approach for the entire jurisdiction, empowering citizens to act in partnership with the police on issues of crime and more broadly defined social problems, for example, quality-of-life issues, and using problem-oriented or problem-solving approaches involving police personnel working with community members. Community oriented policing has improved the public’s perception of the police in a huge way. Community policing builds more relationships with the
There are several ethical issues that surround police corruption and discretion. Police corruption is defined as police misconduct. This occurs when police officers break their social contract by abusing their authority for personal advantages, department advances, or both. According to social contract theory, police officers are obligated to follow the code of ethics and moral standards of the criminal justice system. Police discretion is defined as the power to make decisions as to whether or not to follow police procedure and protocol, or give someone a
Community policing is a policy and a strategy aimed at achieving more effective and efficient crime control, reduced fear of crime, improved quality of life, improved police services and police legitimacy, through a proactive reliance on community resources that seeks to change crime causing conditions. This assumes a need for greater accountability of police, greater public share in decision-making and greater concern for civil rights and liberties.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).
Understanding the issue is just part of what’s needed. The purpose of the section is to identify a solution, or as may be the case, solutions. So, the question here is what can we do to improve the relationship between the police and the citizens. Over the years there has been many books written and studies conducted, all in an effort to find the best way to improve police and citizen relationships. To do this we must look at all available information. According to The Study Circles Resource Center’s Protecting Communities, Serving the Public: Police and residents building relationships to work together (2000), “Bring police and community together. We need to meet not just when there is a crisis or a big crime. We should do things to build relationships that are not so full of conflict. Then it would be easier to work together. We can build respect and trust for one another when we make time to meet with and learn about each other. This is the only way to do it.